With the ongoing negotiations happening between the MLB owners and the Players Association, when is the deadline for an agreement? Our Cubs 360 panel discusses when that might happen.

Tony Clark, Executive Director of the Player’s Association, released a statement saying that “players are ready to report, ready to get back on the field and willing to do so under unprecedented conditions.” The negotiations are continuing to happen with a variety of number of games discussed for this upcoming season. The main question on everyone’s mind remains, when will a deal get finalized?

Bruce Levine mentioned that the owners want the playoffs to be finished by October and the regular season finished by September. Days are running out according to Levine. 

“Once you hear nothing for two or three days, then you know that a deal is being struck. That is what we’re waiting for and that’s what is needed right now. Just to get the players to whatever spring training site that it’s going to be whether it’s at their home ball park by June 15th and that seems to be the earliest if they get something done in the next few days,” Levine said. “That only gives you probably ten weeks of a baseball season. It’s going to be four weeks for pitchers in spring training. Nobody wants to rush their pitchers through a spring training just to get a truncated season involved. The next three to four days are crucial.”

Tony Andracki agreed with Levine about being up against the schedule with having players ready around July 4th.

“It’s going to take a couple of days for everybody to come from, for example, Javy [Báez is] down in Puerto Rico, and wherever anybody else is to get to all one place. Whether that is Chicago or Arizona, it’s going to be a few days from now before anybody can get together for spring training 2.0,” Andracki said. “If you’re looking at 10 weeks, you’re looking at 70 days, 80 days, you’ll be lucky if you’ll be able to play about 60-75 games in that span because you will have doubleheaders, but you also need off days. It’s going to be difficult and it’s looking like 82 game season may not be in the cards if they have to finish by the end of September.”

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